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Mount Kinabalu pt. 1

Climbing to the top of Mount Kinabalu (4095m) was a heart-pounding two-day adventure. It was our first ever official mountain climb and something we won’t forget any time soon.
Before the climb Henri and I were both quite nervous. We don’t have “real mountains” in Finland and neither of us live in high altitude. Some reviews on the internet say that Mount Kinabalu is “ HUGE, DAUNTING and TERRIFYING”. Climbing to the top of Southeast Asia’s highest peak seemed crazy. In the end we decided to give it a go, and I’m glad we did.
We set off at 8am together with our own mountain guide. The hike from Timpohon Gate to the summit would be 8,7km, which at that point sounded kind of easy. Of course it wasn’t.

During the first couple of hours we actually quite enjoyed ourselves. It was wonderful to hike in the jungle and see waterfalls, monkeys and different sorts of birds. Henri was attacked by a cheeky little squirrel, but luckily all he got was just a small scratch. We took it nice and steadily, which is very important when preparing for high altitude. The higher we got, the harder it got. At one point we were climbing a steep staircase which was winding up and up and up… and never seemed to end. For a Finnish person hiking in a hot and humid climate is pretty damn awful as it’s the complete opposite of the climate back in Finland. We survived though (with lots of water)!

Just as we were starting to get very sweaty and sticky because of the hot and humid air, it started to rain. There was mud and water everywhere, and we were soon experiencing the feeling of being wet. On a mountain. With heavy rucksacks. If we hadn’t seen all those mountain carriers with 32kg gas bottle on their backs, we would have probably started complaining – a lot. Instead we shut our mouths and kept moving through the mud and rain.

Before we even realized anything, we’d made it to the rest house, Laban Rata. At this point we’d already climbed higher than ever before as Henri’s “record” was 2243m (Adam’s Peak) and mine was 2725m (Kilimanjaro Base Camp). A hot shower and a cup of tea was just what we needed! We went to sleep at 7pm, ready for the early start.

Anna

A 24-year-old Finnish-English traveler, sharing stories from the rainforests of Borneo to the beaches of Sri Lanka, and from the Sahara desert all the way to the Arctic circle.Current location: The Netherlands